Readers' comments

As an old and continuous reader on the Economist, in addition to my surprise by the lack of research on the subject as already expressed by phma3113073’ comment, it is quite remarkable Mr. Brufau’s excellence handling the media, now including the Economist.

Mr. Brufau was appointed by a political friend following the 2004 change on the Spanish Government, and after chopping out any form of disagreement from the previous management by early retiring 16 out of the existing 18 MD with wealthy packages and no complains, then appointed faithful friends from outside the company to the top management of Repsol, none of them with previous knowledge of the oil industry whatsoever, (actually Repsol is though to be the one and only oil company where none of either board members or Directors Committee members have any previous knowledge of the oil business).

With the previous, what is really extraordinary is that Mr. Brufau has managed to get Repsol share performing as well as most of the oil supermajors (actually much better that the BP or Shell). However as many times small is beautiful thus, if you were to look to the real Repsol’s pear group, (the BG, OXY, Anadarko, Apache, Marathon……) share price behaved significantly worse that any of them, and also significantly worse than any Spanish Co. from the Energy sector (Endesa, Iberdrola, Gas Natural, Cepsa…..)

Thus, lets prise Mr. Brufau for what he has prove to do well, handling the media even to the point to make the Economist to write in Catalan, but please, for the seek of truth that many of us attach to the Economist, not for discoveries or strategies linked to the oil business, this world actually quiet new and weir for him and his colleagues at the top of Repsol.

Sincere Man,You don't seem to know much about what' going on in Spain. Let me help you.Whether Mr Aznar was wrong in involving Spain in Irak is not as important as the stance that the Spanish people took. You are right in diffentiating a leader from the people it leads. But you should apply that difference to review your attacks.This may come as a surprise to you: Mr Aznar went to war despite an 80-90% disapproval rate on the matter. But as an elected leader, he could do it his way and did so. He payed for it in the next elections.Spanish respect themselves. Not because they ended up withdrawing from Irak, but because they have the power to change things, whichever way. And they certainly don't look at the US as the master of their destiny. They chose to leave Irak and to stay in Afghanistan. They applied their own independent criteria as to what made sense and what didn't.I am sure this will also come as a surprise to you: To this day, Mr Zapatero is the only Western leader never to visit the White House. He has been in office for his 5th year now. It's absolutely mad that Spain carries this kind of relationship with one of their historic allies and commercial partners. Hopefully this will change as soon as Mr Bush gets out of office and Mr Zapatero wakes up. But in the meanwhile, I find it very funny that anyone thinks Spain dances to their beat.

In fact there is a huge potential and in future Repsol will highly benefit from being partners of Petrobras in this venture. But it will be in a very distant future. Carioca is not the only oil deposit found by Petrobras in the southern Brazilian platform. There are lots of other fields found and more likely to be explored first - in most of them Petrobras either owns exclusive rights for exploring or have partners with much more technological exploring backgrounds than Repsol. Carioca lies deep in the ocean (more than 2,5 km deep water, plus more than 5 km rocky layers, which include a 1-2 km of salt layer, which demands a challenging and very expensive technology to drill). Petrobras leads the technology for deep water drilling and for 30 years has leading the exploration in deep water. But the company is extremely rational when it comes to decide investing the money of their shareholders, and off course it's more rational to explore first the more advantageous oil fields and then move to Carioca and others when it has developed a safe and cheap technology.

That�s what I am talking about. I am saying that both the European Union and the Government of Spain has to give a clear answer to the US retaliation.

After all the European Union is the biggest Market of the World, so if the US retaliates against Spain (the same way they did five years ago against France) the European Union and the Spanish Government cannot allow that.

You wrote: "the Governments of Spain and the UK can be taken seriously".

I think Spain should have behaved seriously and have not given military support for US in Iraq and Afghanistan Under Mr. Asnar government. Do you wanted to be rewarded by US for you obedience? Nobody will respect a government (and a people) that doesn't respect itself. Independence is a thing to be conquered by the Spanish, not to be given (by Mr. Bush, as you seem to expect) in exchange for Spain as a reward for its unconditional subservience.

If Spain want to make business with Iran, why don't you carry on without US patronage? I could list here a lot of countries that ignores the arrogant US politics toward Iran. There is a price to pay when a country decide to keep its sovereignty. But it seems that Spain decided not to pay it and that's why you are expecting the US to authorize your president to meet Mr. Ahmad-Nejhah.

Recently all Spanish newspapers proudly applauded when your "courageous" King commanded a sound and rude "Shut up!" to a Latin-American leader in an international meeting. But everybody note that Spanish king becomes a vassal when talking to Mr. Bush, and so do your government.

The main mistake of Spain�s oil industry comes from Franco�s days when Equatorial Guinea was given Independence without control. Right now Equatorial Guinea produces over 400,000 crude barrels, a third of Spain�s needs that could have been covered if Repsol and the Spanish Government had a much closer relationship with Equatorial Guinea after independence.

The Carioca oilfield is a great new....so would have been Repsol participation in an important Mideast oilfield. The European Union and the Spanish Government shouldn�t accept US retaliation and, instead, should support free trade the same way Europe did after open American retaliation against France when they rejected the American invasion of Iraq.

Mr.Brufau and other leaders of the oil industry are laughing easy, just as they are earning money.
It seems intelligent, but may be just the opposite. The happy administrators of black gold are making possible the green gold, the bio solutions.
With the tremendous increases in the price of oil, all the procedures to move people, for example, are viable, as all procedures for the replacement of oil.
Very soon, people loading people in the neck, or on the back, will become a business opportunity.
Meanwhile, Mr.Brufau and his peers still laughing.
Eduardo Buys www.varejototal.zip.net

Repsol is still far from being a real oil company. Their technological level is close to zero. They are a business spanish speaking platform that used the low cost of European money to invest in the Spanish speaking countries and more recently in Brazil.

US retaliation against Repsol and Shell for the $10 billion investment in Iran needs a clear answer from the European Union.

It looks like the US wants to develop the Iranian oilfield by themselves alone and don�t allow the opportunity that Repsol and Shell have to start pumping in that oilfield.

An answer from the European Market, a clear answer from the European Union to avoid relatiation and guarantee free trade should come next if the EU and the Governments of Spain and the UK can be taken seriously.

I was surprised, given the Economist’s reputation for accurate and fair reporting, by the fawning piece that appears in your May 15, 2008 issue (Face Value|Return to Rio) featuring Antonio Brufau, the President of Spain’s largest oil company; Repsol.Your article slides over the recent upstream failures that Repsol has experienced in Bolivia, Argentina (including some murky dealings with a controversial bankers trust involved in the sale of a percentage of Repsol YPF) and Algeria, and seems to makes the point that Mr Brufau is somehow responsible for the only real bright spot in Repsol’s upstream activities; the Carioca oil field discovery offshore Brazil. Some research would have brought to light the fact that the previous Repsol management, in 2001, negotiated this participation with Petrobras. Mr Brufau did not arrive in Repsol until 2004. Napoleon said that a good general was a lucky general so Mr Brufau can be credited with luck, not an innate skill in the upstream oil business

Challenging new opportunities in Latin America are offering Repsol a chance to become an adult business within the industry worldwide. Opportunities entail, of course, new responsibilities.

Let�s hope Mr. Brufau does not simply make once again the old bad mistake made by Spain in Mercantilism�s years in the colonies and, more recently, in mainland�s years of vivrant economic growth resulting from the construction industry�s golden years -a buble now badly bursting- : that is, taking away every dollar made without reinvesting a single penny in sustainable and productive future growth for the benefit of all parties involved.

I personally believe this catalan entrepreneur is far more brilliant than many of his shallow-vision peers in Spain.